Medical Mystery - Part 6

Posted on Wed Feb 18th, 2026 @ 8:56pm by Captain Rhenora Kaylen & Lieutenant Commander Aurora Vali & Lieutenant JG Rowan Hale & Lieutenant JG Olivia Voight

1,458 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Beholder
Location: Sickbay

There was a pause, pregnant and expectant, yet no one was game enough to fill the void. The gauntlet was thrown; the timeframe, although somewhat open-ended, was bookended with an outcome similar to a train in a tunnel. They got this wrong, many, many people suffered, and they would be first on the Vezda buffet.

"We are working on containing them in a Moebius loop, something that would keep them contained in their own space/time for as long as time itself. Our teams are working through the solutions necessary to get them there. Now I'm concerned the Vezda may beat us to it, or there may be another force at play," Rhenora mused, leaning against the biobed next to Batel's.

Batel didn't look away.

“If there is another force at play,” she said carefully, “then you are not just containing the Vezda. You are containing the interaction.”

Her hand shifted slightly against the biobed, grounding herself in the present.

“The well was never just a prison. It was a regulator. It dampened harmonic bleed into adjacent space. If the seal is weakening faster than projected, something is feeding the differential.”

Her eyes narrowed, not in fear but calculation.

“You need to determine whether the instability is internal pressure or external amplification.”

Rowan’s gaze sharpened slightly at that. “Amplification would suggest deliberate interference,” he said quietly.

Batel nodded once. “And if it is deliberate,” she continued, “then your loop will not be contested once.”

Her eyes met Kaylen’s again. “It will be contested continuously.”

A brief silence followed.

“In my experience,” she added evenly, “once the Vezda begins synchronising beyond containment parameters, you have hours. Not days.”

There was no alarm in her tone. Only calculation. “Less if it senses resistance as pattern.”

Kaylen exhaled slowly, realising all the bad news at once. They needed to see if something was aiding the Vezda, attempting to bust them loose from their eternal prison.

"I need to get down there and see what's at play," Rhenora murmured, half a dozen ideas popping into her head. "But I need you to come with me." She looked at the other Captain and then to the medical staff, already hearing the objections before they were spoken.

Kaylen's words settled heavily in the room.

Rowan didn't respond immediately. His gaze shifted to the monitor, then to Batel, then back to the Captain. Batel's cardiac rhythm had elevated again, though still within tolerance. Cortical activity was sharpening.

"She is not medically cleared for field exposure," Rowan said evenly.

There was no heat to his words. No challenge. Just fact.

"Her neural integration is ongoing. Introducing her to the harmonic source of her displacement could destabilise that process."

He stepped slightly closer to the biobed, not shielding her, but anchoring himself beside it.

"If she decompensates in proximity to the well, you will lose both your advantage and your patient."

Batel’s jaw tightened faintly.

“I am not fragile,” she said quietly.

“I am aware,” he replied, meeting her line of sight.

A beat.

“You are also physiologically compromised.”

Aurora shifted subtly at Kaylen’s side, her voice entering the space with measured calm.

“The Captain is asking whether your presence would change the equation,” she said gently to Batel. “Not whether you can endure it.”

Batel considered that.

“If the instability is harmonic,” she said carefully, “then I may be able to identify the frequency vector faster in the field.”

Rowan’s eyes sharpened slightly. “May,” he repeated.

“Yes,” Batel replied without apology.

Kaylen stepped closer, tension held tight beneath discipline.

“If we have hours,” she said, “I cannot afford theoretical delays.”

“And I cannot afford neurological collapse,” Rowan answered calmly.

Silence followed. Not hostile. Just arithmetic.

Batel’s gaze moved between them. “You are both correct,” she said at last.

She drew a slow breath.

“If there is amplification, proximity will clarify it. If there is external interference, I will recognise the pattern.”

Her fingers flexed once against the biobed.

“But if my presence accelerates synchronisation…”

She did not finish. Rowan did.

“Then you become part of the feedback loop.”

Aurora’s expression shifted almost imperceptibly.

“This isn’t just about physical strain,” she said softly. “If she is still resonating with the well, proximity may not be neutral.”

That landed differently.

Rowan turned that over quickly. “Residual entanglement,” he murmured.

Batel’s eyes flicked to him.

“Yes.”

Kaylen exhaled once, controlled.

“What are my options?”

Rowan didn't hesitate. “Remote interface first,” he said. “Controlled exposure. Gradual harmonic sampling. If she demonstrates stable pattern recognition without neurological stress markers, we reassess.”

His eyes met Kaylen's. “Incremental escalation. Not immediate deployment.”

He paused.

“If you are asking whether I will authorise her transport to an unstable containment site in her current condition,” he added evenly, “the answer is no.”

It wasn’t insubordination. It was jurisdiction.

Batel watched him for a long moment.

“You would tether me,” she observed.

“Yes,” Rowan replied.

Aurora’s voice softened the edge.

“That may be the difference between assistance and sacrifice.”

The room fell silent. Kaylen studied Batel carefully.

This decision was no longer purely tactical. It was ethical.

"You have a tactical advantage," Rhenora replied, not so much to plead her case but as a realisation of what they were lacking. She understood the medical team's refusal to release their patient. Batel was less than 24 hours after reintegrating back into human form. It was evident she still held a connection to the prism.

"Is there any way I can go down there and feed you data? Tricorder readings, sensor scans, would that do? Or could Aurora provide a sort of neural bridge with her telepathic abilities?" The Captain fired rapid questions at everyone in the room.

Rowan didn't react to the speed of the question, instead beginning to filter them.

“Data feed is viable,” he said calmly. “Tricorder telemetry, full spectrum harmonic analysis, environmental phase variance.”

He glanced at Batel briefly.

“But interpretation remains the variable.”

His gaze shifted to Aurora.

“A neural bridge would introduce reciprocal exposure,” he added. “If there is residual entanglement, that connection becomes bidirectional.”

He let that settle.

“I will not authorise a live telepathic interface with an unstable harmonic source.”

Batel’s eyes remained steady.

“You’re concerned about amplification through me,” she said.

“Yes.” Rowan inclined his head. "But remote sampling…" His voice trailed as he recalibrated. "With Batel observing from here. Shielded. Monitored. If her cortical activity begins to synchronise beyond baseline, we terminate the feed immediately.”

Batel considered that. “You would let me see it?”

“I would let you analyse it,” Rowan corrected.

There was a brief pause.

“Under supervision.”

Olivia observed the interactions unfolding in Sickbay. She had learned that at times it was best to observe in order to better understand certain situations. "Is there by chance a way to telepathically link another individual to someone on the other side as a backup plan?" Olivia asked.

Rhenora thought about it and looked at Batel, who was becoming more agitated with each passing minute. She couldn't tell if the other woman felt frustrated at the limitations being placed upon her during her recovery, or something else.

"What data do you need?" Kaylen dropped her tone slightly, stepping forward in an effort to calm Batel.

Rowan didn't look up immediately. His focus remained on the cortical readings for a fraction longer, confirming they were still within acceptable parameters.

“Full harmonic spectrum analysis from the well interface,” he said at last. “Phase variance mapping across the seal boundary. Any anomalous energy spikes within a two kilometre radius of the gateway.”

He stepped closer to the console, pulling up a schematic of the containment field.

“I want continuous telemetry, not snapshots. If there is amplification, it will present as pattern escalation, not isolated fluctuation.”

His gaze shifted briefly to Batel.

“And environmental resonance data,” he added. “Gravitic distortion, subspace shear, anything that suggests external modulation. Raw feeds routed directly to Sickbay. No compression filters.”

A beat.

“If she is going to analyse this, I need to see what she sees in real time.”

"I'll get you what you need. Dr Hale, could you spare Olivia? I'd like to take her with me." Rhenora grabbed a medical tricorder and tossed it to the young medic.

Rowan’s eyes moved to Olivia, assessing rather than reacting.

"Take her."

"Commander Savar, I'm taking a small team to the planet for some data readings. We shouldn't be long," the Captain advised the XO and braced herself for the lecture that would come afterwards.

"Lt Stevens, meet me in transporter room 1 in 5 minutes for away team duty."

"Let's solve this once and for all" the Captain said with resolution, then turned and left sickbay.

 

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